India’s AI Workforce Reaches 9.2 Lakh As Hiring Shifts From Experimentation To Enterprise Execution

India's AI workforce has grown to 9.2 lakh professionals, while hiring demand has reached 3.5 lakh roles, according to a Quess Corp report. Companies are increasingly focusing on deploying and governing AI systems rather than experimentation. Demand is rising across operations, customer service, finance and marketing as businesses integrate AI into everyday workflows and decision-making.

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India’s AI Workforce Reaches 9.2 Lakh As Hiring Shifts From Experimentation To Enterprise Execution
IANS Updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2026, 06:14 PM IST
India’s AI Workforce Reaches 9.2 Lakh As Hiring Shifts From Experimentation To Enterprise Execution

AI professionals work on enterprise applications as Indian companies accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence across business functions | IANS (Representational Image)

New Delhi, June 17: India now has an estimated 9.2 lakh AI professionals as the majority of total hiring demand of 3.5 lakh roles has moved sharply from experimentation to execution, a report said on Wednesday.

AI-Embedded Roles Dominate Workforce

India's 9.2 lakh AI professionals comprise about 2.57 lakh in Core AI roles and 6.63 lakh in AI-embedded roles, the report from workforce solutions firm Quess Corp said. Employers are increasingly seeking talent that can deploy, govern, integrate and scale AI within real business workflows.

Governance, AgentOps, runtime operations, evaluation and quality assurance functions accounted for 26 per cent of hiring demand as AI adoption matures. Organisations are placing greater emphasis on these roles to ensure AI systems are secure, reliable and enterprise-ready.

Focus Shifts to Enterprise AI Deployment

The report noted that GCCs are hiring for reusable internal AI platforms, enterprise integration and governance, while IT services firms want to deliver AI across client programmes. Enterprises are hiring selectively to connect AI to finance, risk, operations, customer experience and employee systems.

"Enterprises are embedding AI directly into business workflows and decision-making. Together, they are creating a new talent landscape where execution capability matters more than experimentation," said Kapil Joshi, CEO – Quess IT Staffing.

“More than 70 per cent of India’s AI workforce now sits outside traditional AI specialist roles, while nearly one-third of all AI demand is emerging from business functions such as operations, customer service, marketing, finance, governance and workforce management,” he added.

Business Functions Drive AI Hiring Demand

Customer operations alone could see 45–60 per cent of workflows augmented by AI, while marketing functions are undergoing one of the fastest AI-led transformations.

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The report said that 66–68 per cent of active job postings are for Core AI roles, while 32–34 per cent are for AI-embedded roles, a demand mix that contrasts with the supply base, where 72–74 per cent of the workforce sits in AI-embedded roles and only 26–28 per cent in Core AI.

Non-tech business functions now account for roughly 1.2 lakh AI skill-cited demand, led by operations at 57,000 postings.

(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Published on: Wednesday, June 17, 2026, 06:14 PM IST

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